Market turned?

zcacmxi

It seems to me that the best properties, priced to sell are being snapped up very quickly. The properties that are not shifting in our area are the ones in less sought after areas, far from station or those ones that have been overpriced.

I'm using property bee with rightmove, even top end properties way above the average for the area have sold in a week. This is an example: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25911197.html

This one took a month: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25486457.html

This one 3 weeks: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25365695.html

There are others that have not sold for months/years, but they would not sell even in a booming market as they have been overpriced.

insight101

House on market 2 days 1st viewing offer 3.5K below asking.
3 viewing in 3 days.
Priced right, Right area. and no simalar propertys on market.

So things are moving, Location and price are the key factors.

martynh99

There are loads of properties on the market on the estate we're renting on - a lot have been on over a year and are still on at the prices they went on which were pretty much the peak 2007 prices (~250k). These same houses were about £147k when first built 6/7 years ago but of course people have this silly notion that if they sell for less than the £250k they were worth at the peak, they're losing money

One house went on the other week at £209k and sold within 3 weeks, not completed yet so don't know what price it achieved.

Dinah93

Still plenty of drops around my area, and while there are sold signs in the estate agents windows, I walk past those windows most days and some of those properties sold over 6 months ago and the new buyers are living in them now! Any green shoots can be attributable to the time of year, mortgages are harder to come by, job security is decreasing, people are tightening their belts until they feel confident the economy is strengthening again.

Scabs

zcacmxi wrote: »

It seems to me that the best properties, priced to sell are being snapped up very quickly. The properties that are not shifting in our area are the ones in less sought after areas, far from station or those ones that have been overpriced.

I'm using property bee with rightmove, even top end properties way above the average for the area have sold in a week. This is an example: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25911197.html

This one took a month: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25486457.html

This one 3 weeks: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25365695.html

There are others that have not sold for months/years, but they would not sell even in a booming market as they have been overpriced.

I understand what you are saying, however 400k for a 3 bed semi is still way overpriced.

If you wanted to get a mortgage on this place with say 4 times your salary you would need to earn 100k a year. I understand people do make this money but I bet you the majority of people living in these homes dont earn anything near.

The market is not close to the real world and needs to fall a lot more but there are obviously mugs with more money than sense out there still buying.

zcacmxi

Scabs wrote: »

I understand what you are saying, however 400k for a 3 bed semi is still way overpriced.

If you wanted to get a mortgage on this place with say 4 times your salary you would need to earn 100k a year. I understand people do make this money but I bet you the majority of people living in these homes dont earn anything near.

The market is not close to the real world and needs to fall a lot more but there are obviously mugs with more money than sense out there still buying.

Insight101 - Completely agree. If location & price are right, there are plenty of examples of houses selling very quickly.

Scabs, the 400K 3 bed-semi is the top end of the market in a conservation area. It is not first time buyer material. The type of buyers living in this area are usually 3rd/4th time buyers that have built up a significant proportion of equity, so are not borrowing multiples of salary with minimum deposit!

The 1st time buyer flats in the area are around 200K. 20K deposit, and 180K mortgage would require 4x a joint salary of 45K. Even a couple of teachers are getting that now.

zcacmxi

Another indicator to me that the market is moving is that block viewings / open days are back. A friend of mine went to one on Saturday morning. He called back in the afternoon to make an offer, but an offer had already been accepted at full asking from somebody else... Next step is sealed bids!
The lack of supply problem still exists. Anything decent that comes on the market is snapped up very quickly.

Dinah93

Open afternoons have been introduced as a way to makea property seem urgent and encourage sales in properties which have been sitting on the market for ages.

Lack of supply is honestly a myth. I'm a planning officer, the only actual lack of supply is in the sheltered housing and council housing arenas. Private housing is just skewed because of the glut of BTL landlords who have cluttered up the lower end of the market and made it near impossible for FTBs to take that first step in recent years, and driven up prices as a result.

FoxtonsRIP

zcacmxi wrote: »

Another indicator to me that the market is moving is that block viewings / open days are back. A friend of mine went to one on Saturday morning. He called back in the afternoon to make an offer, but an offer had already been accepted at full asking from somebody else... Next step is sealed bids!
The lack of supply problem still exists. Anything decent that comes on the market is snapped up very quickly.

For someone who claims to be a bear you're doing a great impersonation of an estate agent.

zcacmxi

FoxtonsRIP wrote: »

For someone who claims to be a bear you're doing a great impersonation of an estate agent.

I'm not an estate agent. I've been saying house prices will be correcting for the past few years, as I believe in the boom bust cycle. Check my history of posts.

However, I also know what I'm seeing around me. The market is very different to how it was at the end of last year. The FTSE fell to 3500. Today it's back to 4300. Interest rates are still at historic lows, stopping the tidal wave of repos.

In addition, some people are saying the only way out of the Economic mess for the government is to slowly inflate it away. All pointers so far from the government/BOE are towards sacrificing the saver in order to save the borrower. This is not a suprise, the GOV borrow a lot of money.

FoxtonsRIP, you sound like you are short a house! Better jump back on the ladder soon, there are indications that the market is stabilising in London.